Category Archives: Inspire

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Perhaps I can blame it on the scorpion full moon hanging low in the night sky, but it has, quite frankly been a crappy week.

But crappy weeks somehow bring out the best in me. I become more determined to find the good, to see the positive and to be grateful for who and what I have in my life. I’m not being ignorant or building a life of fantasy. Choosing to focus on the beauty of our world gives me courage to keep going. It helps me to gather strength, and it feeds my soul.

The more I focus on how amazing this world is, the more I want to be part of it. The more I want to celebrate. The more I refuse to give up. Yes, I’m a stubborn little shit, as my mother used to say, along with many of my teachers…and perhaps the odd partner and manager…

So todays clip was found on Upworthy. Yes, it’s an ad for an insurance company. But the story is still inspiring.

I hope it reminds you why you are in this world like it reminded me. And if you have had a crappy week too, then hopefully this helps you get out of bed in the morning!

I love this TED talk from Brene Brown where she talks about being vulnerable and dealing with our shame. She talks about how it’s the only way to being brave and to reconnect with each other. Take a wander through the swamp with her…

One of my favourite quotes from the movie Sucker Punch is this: “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything!”

It’s true.

Because to make a stand for anything means that you know who you are in this world, and you know where you want to walk.

It’s not easy to do this. You need to invest in yourself and your heart. You need to take time out to think. About the world. And about who you are in it. You need to read books and articles and to listen to the wise and not so wise. You need to make some decisions. About the world. Especially about the kind of world you want to live in. And you need to make decisions about who you choose to be in this world and what you are going to do about that.

Because the greatest decision you will make will be about being brave enough to follow your heart and live the life you know you should be living.

The first step?

Make a stand. For yourself first.

Choose to fight for yourself.

Take responsibility for yourself.

Promise yourself that you will stop making excuses. Then take one step towards dream.

A few steps in the right direction…

Choose a role model – someone who is living the kind of life that you want to live. Someone who makes a stand for the kind of things that are precious to you as well. Someone you can learn from. She doesn’t have to be someone you know. Read about her. Watch her Youtube clips. Watch her movies. Find out as much as you can about her and her journey to become a game changer.

What makes your heart sing? When do you feel the most happy? When are the times that the day seems to disappear because you have been having so much fun, or you are so absorbed in your world? How can you do more of this? It doesn’t matter what it is.

Start reading. Get interested in the world around you. Find the great speakers and inspirational leaders of our time and check them out. Go and play in your local library and talk to the librarians. They are amazing people! Who do you want to be in this world? What do you want to contribute? Open your eyes and get interested in politics. Yes, I said politics! Start with what’s going on in your own community. Go beyond your diet of the 6 o’clock news and find out what’s going on.

Start small with one step. Promise yourself that you will take one step, no matter what it is or how big or small, every day. Try it for 30 days.

The most important thing is to take ACTION!

Just one step.

Please don’t wait for all of your ducks to line up. And don’t allow the fear of failure stop you from trying. You need to be brave and give it a go.It doesn’t have to be fantastic. It just needs to be one step.

Know who you are in this world. Take a stand. Don’t fall for anything!

Some days are harder than others. You can feel a bit deflated. You tell yourself “What’s the use? It’s all so exhausting.” These are the days that you need to remind yourself of the good, the joy, the bliss. These are the days that you need to follow your heart. You know what you are capable of. It’s the story of your daydreams. You take yourself there in your head at the end of the day, on your way home on the train. Your dreams are full of “what if’s?” when you fall into bed and bury your head in your pillows. In the corner of every hour, every minute, every second your desires call to you, wondering why you have abandoned them. You know in your gut, that you need to go. You know you need to say “yes”. You know that nothing is exhausting and everything has meaning when you are on the path that calls to you.

Today I was inspired to read poetry in bed, laugh and giggle with Amelie, have a bubble bath with a ‘dragon’s egg’, feed my skin with coconut oil, cook fresh vegetable and red lentil soup, eat chocolate, talk with my beautiful dear friends and sons, and have a romantic dinner by candle light with my love.

Look up from your phone…

and if you are feeling a bit more inspired, then put your phone down…and change the world…

So just a head’s up. This post is a bit morbid. I have been thinking about death quite a lot these days.

Mostly I think about death in the context of the DBM project. The thought that everyone I meet may be dead before midnight can be the ultimate leveller.

A few months ago, when I began this project, I struggled to imagine that someone might be dead. It felt like I was forcing myself to imagine a fantasy. It felt like a lie somehow.

Like most of us, I have lived my days smug in the knowledge that life was endless. I had years ahead of me to achieve what I wanted to achieve and so did everyone else. That trip to Ireland that I had been putting off since I was fifteen would happen one day, just not today. Perhaps not even this year. But I had plenty of time to make it happen.

It’s an interesting fantasy that we have woven around ourselves. The truth of course, is that people die every minute, every hour, every day. People we don’t know. People we do. People we love. People we don’t. They are all ages, all genders, all nationalities. Death happens to us all. And one day I will die too. One day you will die. It’s our one common denominator.

We would like to think that we will be roughly 100 when our lives finish. However this is also not true. We know that most of us will be lucky to reach eighty and many people die young. Some will be very young.

We would also like to think that we can buy more time with our lives. If I live a ‘good’ life then I should live longer. But we know this is also not true. There are plenty of good, kind and generous people, both young and old, who die, and plenty of people who are monsters who seem to have tapped into the spring of everlasting life.

Here’s the thing: We cannot barter for extra time on this earth. We can only use the time we have, the best we can. We can eat well, exercise and be good people, but at some point all of our lives will come to an end.

Which brings me to immortality.

It is said that when we die we essentially have three deaths.

The first is when we breathe our last breath and our lives leave our bodies and this earth.

The second is when our bodies physically break down and return to the earth. We are physically no longer here.

The last however, is the one that interests me most. The last death is when our name is spoken for the last time in this world.

With the first two ‘deaths’ we may extend our lives by looking after our wellbeing and physical health, however the reality is that one day we will still die. Our innate being and our physical bodies will still pass.

Our immortality, however, is bound up in the legacy we leave behind. Who we are and how we have lived our lives will influence our third death.

Now here I should say that many of us will influence our immediate families and communities. Our children, our nieces and nephews, our grand children, and great nieces and nephews will be the ones who speak our name beyond our physical death. They will be the ones to pull out the family photos and tell stories about us, in a similar way that we talk about our own grand parents and ancestors. Or don’t.

Our communities will talk about our contributions. The local organisations and clubs that you are a part of, the people you work with every day, will talk about your influence and speak your name depending on your contribution. Depending, of course, on who you are. Depending on what you contribute.

Your legacy doesn’t have to be world wide either. You may not change the world. Like the story of the little boy and the star fish, you may change the world for just one person.

To me, that’s immortality; living beyond your own life on earth.

We may not have full control over the kind of death we have or when we may die, but we do have complete control over the kind of life we live, the people we influence and our own immortality. We have control over our third death.

Who you are every day, every week, every year will decide who will be the last person to speak you name.

Live your life in a way that decides the outcome of your third death.

Be immortal.

“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it’syours.” ― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

My dance teacher sat behind the desk and looked up from the print out of my yearly results. I had asked him if I could dance. I had meant did I have the results that would allow me to take dance as a major. I was holding on tightly to the wooden chair I sat on. My fingers were crossed. My legs were crossed as well. I’m fairly sure that I held my breath as I waited for his answer.

Until I had enrolled in the college I hadn’t had much formal dance training. My sisters were ballet dancers and I had taken the odd jazz class here and there. But I loved dancing. It was the thing I was most passionate about. I had picked up a dance minor as part of my teaching degree, and had worked hard to ‘catch’ up. I was fascinated by contemporary dance history and spent hours in the campus library immersing myself in the lives of inspirational dancers like Martha Graham, the mother of contemporary dance.

I spent weekends studying dance theory and every chance I could I stole time in the studios practicing my technique and rehearsing for practicals. If I would have slept in the dance wing of the college if they had let me.

But in spite of my passion and desire to be a dancer, here I was sitting across from one of the heads of the dance school waiting for him to decide my fate.

I was waiting for this man to give me permission to dance. I was waiting for him to give me permission to follow my dream.

Sometimes the person we lie to the most is ourselves.

We become very clever at blaming the world and those around us for whatever has stopped us from chasing our own dreams. The world and the ‘others’ are the architects of our own failings. If only someone had believed in me. If only someone had believed in me enough.

Somehow we convince ourselves that we have no responsibility for our lives and ourselves. It’s easier to live with ourselves if we have no control over what happens to us. We abdicate responsibility and wait for someone, anyone, to take control and give us the green light.

Perhaps you are telling yourself that you can’t achieve your dream because the world is against you and you never seem to get a break. You always seem surrounded by drama. Your family is a daytime soap opera. Your friends are always having a hard time. The dog needs an operation…and you are tired. Way to tired to follow your own heart.

We talk of ‘someday’, of ‘tomorrow’. We think of our dreams being reliant on something unattainable. If I just had more money or if I just had a better job with a better salary, if I went to a better school, or if I was with someone else. If I just won the lottery then I could follow my dream.

So the truth is that if you are waiting for ‘someday’ then it will never happen. If you are waiting for someone else to give you the resources , or hoping to win the lottery to make your dream a reality, then you roughly have a 2,521,090 to one chance in Australia. I’m guessing that it’s higher in Western countries with much larger populations.

If you are waiting for something grand to arrive on your doorstep tomorrow, then don’t hold your breath.

Because it’s already arrived.

You arrived a while a go.

You are in essence the ‘lottery’.

You have within you all of the resources to create an extraordinary life. Within you is the ability and the strength to make your dream a reality.

You are all you need at first. And further down the track, as your life unfolds, you are still the essential ingredient to your story.

Who you are, what you believe about yourself and the world, and how you choose to be every day is critical.

You don’t need someone else to give you permission to follow your dream or to make your dream a reality, because you already have permission.

That day my dance teacher looked up at me when I asked him if I could dance. He smiled slightly as if he was confused.

“Do you want to dance?”

I nodded.

“Then you don’t need my permission to dance.”

No I didn’t. I don’t need someone else’s permission to be who I want to be in this world. Neither do you. Stop waiting for the package to arrive. The one that you think will make everything you have been waiting for magically appear.

This is an oldie but still an extraordinary speech from an extraordinary man. I hope he inspires you in your week ahead and to make the decisions you need to make to follow your heart.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs

Today I thought I would share a clip from an interview series with Brene Brown on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday.

It is a small section of an extraordinary interview with Brene on her work on vulnerability and her book Daring Greatly. If you haven’t read her book you might like to check Brene’s TED talk out on Youtube. She is both inspiring and challenging, but above all her work encourages me to think that I am enough, and know that I am good enough.

Wow! There have been so many stories and articles that have inspired me to be a better person and create a better world around me this week! I have wanted to share all of them! Here are a few to inspire you lovlies!

First up is an extraordinary story about a homeless man who is a beautiful writer. I always stop and try to do something, for people that are homeless, particularly young people. Whether it’s buying a drink, or donating a few coins, something is better than nothing, because you never know what their story is.

I also wanted to let you know about A Mighty Girl’s facebook page. Their aim is to inspire the next generation of history makers and they are seriously awesome for anyone who works with girls or has girls in their lives…all of us right? They are full of resources, books for girls, inspirational stories about extraordinary women throughout our history or currently making a difference today. Well worth the trip to face book land 🙂